Best projects and LIFE Awards

Best projects

The European Commission and the LIFE national contact points assess all completed LIFE projects based on various criteria:

contribution to immediate and long-term environmental, economic and social improvements
degree of innovation and transferability
relevance to policy
cost-effectiveness.

The most successful LIFE projects subsequently become ‘Best LIFE projects’. They go on to compete as finalists in the LIFE Awards.

The LIFE Awards recognise the best LIFE projects in three categories: nature protection, environment and climate action.

The LIFE Awards ceremony

The LIFE Awards recognise the most innovative, inspirational and effective LIFE projects in three categories: nature protection, environment and climate action. The winners are selected by an expert jury and announced on the day of the ceremony, which takes place during the EU Green Week – Europe’s biggest environmental event.

Also, the LIFE Citizens’ Prize allows the general public to get to know the finalists and vote for their preferred project online.

LIFE Awards 2022 winners

LIFE Award for Nature:

LIFE-KEDROS - enhancing the conservation status and resilience of cedar forests at risk from climate change in Cyprus

LIFE Award for Environment:

Clean Sea LIFE – an awareness-raising project to reduce marine litter along Italian coasts

LIFE Award for Climate Action:

LIFE VinEcoS - boosting biodiversity on vineyards in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, to make them more climate-resilient

The other finalists were:

NATURE PROTECTION

LIFE RE-Vultures - protecting the Griffon and Black vultures in Bulgaria and north-eastern Greece
LIFE Roseate Tern - improving breeding conditions for Europe’s rarest sea bird at core colonies in Ireland and the United Kingdom
LIFE for Minuartia - saving the Minuartia smejkalii flowering plant from extinction in Czechia

ENVIRONMENT

LIFE EcoSens Aquamonitrix - designing a portable monitoring solution for Europe’s water sector
LIFE Fit for REACH - helping companies in the Baltic States manage chemicals and substitute hazardous substances
LIFE No_Waste – reviving degraded soil at three former mining sites in Portugal

CLIMATE ACTION

LIFE-DIADEME – demonstrating the energy-saving benefits of an adaptive street lighting system in Italy
LIFE - DoppelPlus - helping low-income households in Tirol, Austria become clean energy transition ambassadors
LIFE Clinomics - increasing the climate change resilience of territories and economies in Catalonia, Spain

LIFE CITIZENS’ PRIZE

The LIFE Citizens’ Prize saw the public vote for their preferred project online.

Clean Sea LIFE won the popular vote for its awareness-raising actions that helped reduce marine litter along Italian coastal areas.

LIFE AND NATURA 2000 AWARD

The LIFE and Natura 2000 award went to the LIFE to alvars project. The team restored 2 500 hectares of alvar grassland in Estonia – roughly 25% of the global total – by removing woodlands and forests that developed spontaneously on these sites.

Previous editions

Find out more about previous best projects and LIFE Awards winners:

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